THERE is a musty smell of old bricks at the Old Castlemaine Gaol. It is understandable since the prison was built in the 1850s and operated until 1995.

Reminding yourself of the fact that some of Australia’s worst criminals, serving sentences for some horrible crimes, were housed here during that 140 years adds to the atmosphere for people touring the facility on a Saturday night.

Last Saturday ghost hunting team Forever Haunted led a small group around the Castlemaine institution to impart their knowledge and skills onto a few more potential ghost hunters.

Psychic medium Anthony Kilner led the expedition with investigation team leader Garry Sullivan.

Mr Sullivan is the “sceptic” of the team and helps debunk a lot of the theories put forward about supernatural occurrences.

But rather than waiting for the dramatic moment of a spirit or ghost standing at the top of the stairs, the Forever Haunted team simply collects, collates and analyses data.

There is not leaping to ghostly conclusions, they look for the logical answer before fully believing spirits are stalking the tour.

“We probably have about five or six hours of audio-visual stuff that needs to be sifted through,” Mr Kilner said.